Lost in the death game : SAO
by Trueblades
Summary: Well all know how SAO unfolded for the real Characters, but what about the others in SAO. Those that struggled from 2 years. This is the story of some of those that get caught up in SAO whose tales weren't center stage. People just trying to survive a death game. Join Suijin, True, Benten and more as they try and sometimes fail to clear SAO.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer, I own nothing in regards to SAO, neither the characters not word.

Chapter One.

November 3, 2022

*Ping*

The incoming message chimed again. He'd be ignoring it for the last few minutes. His cell was linked in to his computer, and every time Yuu sent him a message in the chat it chimed his phone. R had been ignoring it mostly in hopes that it would stop. He was mentally begging it to stop. It was a little past 2 am, and he had been sleeping, something he normally liked to do at two in the morning most days.

*Ping*

*Ping**Ping**Ping*

He covered his head with his pillow, and groaned. Yuu was the only one that would ever send him that many messages in a row at this hour.

*Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping*

"UHHGGGG! FINE! I'M UP!" He shrugged himself out of bed, and stumbled over to his phone. He pulled the charger out and held his thumb to the screen. It beeped and his phone clicked on. A bright 1:54am, Nov 3rd came swimming across the screen. The room lit up under the faint blue light the phone provided. He scrolled through Yuu's messages. It proved what he always thought, Yuu was an asshole.

-Hey you up?  
-I know you're up.  
-I can prove it...  
-If you're not up, how are you reading this?  
-Seriously man, get online now.  
-Don't make me Beep you.  
-BEEEEP  
-Bep  
-Beeeeeeeeeep  
-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep  
-Bep  
-Are you up yet?  
-Beeeep  
-Get online now!

Yuu was indeed an asshole and his best friend. A few years Yuu moved here from Japan and they were put in the same class. For the last three years they had been like brothers. Of course he actually had a brother, but he was three years younger and they didn't really get along. Yuu was like a brother that you actually liked. About five months ago Yuu's father got another job back in Tokyo, so they moved back to Japan.  
Now about twice a week, Yuu would wake him up with messages. The 13 hour time difference was a real killer, but its what you put up with for a friend right?

He punched his computer on, and sat down. The chair creaked menacingly and two of the legs on it wobbled a bit. He really need a new chair. It was going to snap on day, and probably sooner rather than later. The old OLED monitor swiftly brightened. It was an old piece of crap, but he had built it himself. He was proud of it even as old as the parts were. The chat program came up with the OS, and Yuu was already sending him text.

_-What took you so long?_  
-I hate you, you know that right. Like beat you with a stick, and drop you in a pile of salt, hate.  
_-OK, enough of your talking. You're talking time is done. _  
-HATE.  
_-So dad's new job has some perks. _  
-Geisha's around every corner eh? You're fathers job sucks. You suck. When are you moving back? I'm bored here, and you suck... just in case you forgot it.  
-_ OK, so not coming back any time soon. I know it sucks. Also, no Geisha. I asked for some, but Mom says we don't have any spare rooms. I'm trying to see if we can kick Natsuko out but again Mom says she stays. Anyways back to the part with you shutting up, while I talk. So ya, shut up already  
_ -Salt, lots of salt. Hundreds of cuts and salt  
_-So my dad is working for this firm that is covering the PR for this huge game release. Good news, I got in to the beta. Bad news its freaking amazing and wont end up in North America for a year or two. So yeah Awesome game, that I get to play, and wont be there for a few years.  
_-You woke me up to brag... and its not even about a girl, but a game? You're going to die a virgin you know that right. Not that, that's a bad thing. I'm proud you strong enough to come out with your life choice. That aside, can we get Natsuko to take Geisha training? She's already sweet and quiet. I swear I'll come and visit her. Not you mind, just her.  
_-First, your a horrible and disgusting person. Its almost enough for me not to tell you the best news. Honestly though, Natsuko? Are you mentally ill dude? She's an evil tyrant. A monstrous overlord bent on destruction. I swear I once saw her kick a puppy... Ok so that's a lie. But she did give it a hurtful stare.  
_-She's hot. You're right though, I won't have a chance.  
_-Damn right you don't. God your words make me want to scrub my brain with cheese grater. _  
-Best news I've heard so far tonight. What was your good news now?  
_-...Right... So are you ready to grovel?  
_-I will try my best, but I'll warn you now, I was born with out the grovelling gene. Instead I got god-like awesomeness.  
_-So you're genetically defective? It wasn't being dropped on your head a lot as a child? Maybe the awesomeness makes up for your hideous looks.  
_ -You know what, I can't think of a witty reply. Its 2 am. I dug myself that hole, and now I dearly wish to lie in it.  
-_ OK, so you're not going to get any sleep tonight. Sorry. Time for best news.  
_-Dude its been almost 5 minutes, spit it out. I know it says youre typing, but I bet youre just hitting a button and backspace. You're not building any suspense, cause I'm going to fall asleep, and your "big" news will fail. Also, funnily enough, I can't find an emotion that is stabbing its self in the face while waiting for a friend to let it go back to sleep. Weird they don't have that, I assumed it would be really popular.  
_-Sorry man, had to double check with my dad on something. OK so there are some legal things that I'll need you to sigh after, messed up eh? Oh and of course you can't tell anyone in the press about it, cant blog, vlog, or brag about it, blah, blah, legalize, blah. _  
-...k  
_-Yeah. OK so, my dad was able to get a third copy of the game I've been beta testing. It's called Sword Art Online. There is only 10k copies for opening release(Until they get some more servers running.) Oh and you wouldn't believe the hardware that they call servers, its like 20 normal servers running in tandem to make one world. It's crazy man. Its FULL DIVE. There hasn't ever been a game like this.  
_-I thought it wouldn't be available here. How can I play? No way my Ip would connect.  
_-Huh... yeah. Hadn't thought about that. Maybe a Vpn or something would work.  
_-I hate you and I'm going to go back to bed. That was a serious I hate you by the way. Not a playful one like earlier.  
_-OK... OK I got a plan.  
_-So do I, I'm grabbing my blanket as we speak.  
_-Stop! Man, put the blanket down! Are you putting it down? Listen. You can't sleep. Sleep is for the weak and you're... OK crap... uh, true sleep is for the weak and you're weak, but don't sleep! Listen to the plan. _  
-Yuu.  
_-OK listening?  
_-Son of a... yes I'm listening. Wait, got a sec knock. :-( Parents must have heard me swearing.  
_-O.o  
_-yeah. Brb  
_-But, but... listening, and the plan!_

The soft tap at the door happened again. R got up but hesitated. He paused as long as he could, His gathered his courage and then opened the door. His father's large frame stood there, looking like he had just been woken up. "Son we have to talk. Get dressed and come down stairs." His father stood there for a long moment, and then shuffled away. Waking up in the middle of the night really showed the similarity between father and son. He shuffled to his computer again.

-Hey, its going to be a while man. Dad wants to have a chat. Since its 2am that means it's going to take time.  
_-No worries, I'll sit here thinking about how only specialist doctors can help you with your disgusting taste in women until you get back. Tell him I say Hi. Then we shall discuss...THE PLAN... dun dun duuuuun._

R grabbed his pants from where he had tossed them on the floor earlier and put them on, before heading down stairs.  
His dad was sitting in his favourite chair in the living room, when he saw his son motioned for him to sit on the couch near him. There was a chess board set out in between them. It was something that they started a few years ago. When ever R woke up in the night, or more recently stayed up late, and his father was still up, they would play a game. His dad would have a glass of scotch as they played, and no one would talk until it was over. So he sat on the couch, and made the first move. His father made a move and the game began.  
They were about half way through, and he was losing which was sadly the normal case. It surprised him when his father started to talk. First his father looked at the clock, then asked.  
"Have you figured it out yet?  
R studied the board again, looking for what his dad was talking about. "Uhhh..."  
"Want a hint?"  
"No, I'll get it" He stared at the board, and then moved his bishop across the board.  
"Smart move, but it shows that you really haven't figured it out." His dad moved a knight and took his bishop.  
He smiled at his father and his queen took the knight. "Check"  
His dad let out a deep sigh, and pushed a pawn forward to threaten the white queen.  
"I wouldn't be so smug son. You just lost the game." as he said this he leaned back.  
R's eyes scanning the board for the trap that he missed. He couldn't see it.  
"All talk, I have you this time." Still he retreated with his queen.  
His father glanced at the clock again at the mention of time.  
"To think I raised such a fool, what will they think?"  
"They?" he started to ask, but stopped as his father's other knight took his queen.  
"Ah! AHHHH!"  
"Quiet you'll wait your brother up!" He said in a stern but quiet voice.  
"You bluffed. I fell for it... my queen." There was a really long moment before he used a pawn to take the knight, but now even he could see it was over.  
"Check mate" his father said as a rook slid across the board.  
"So figured it out yet."  
"The trap? Yeah I figured that out, you know hindsight and all that"  
"Don't be glib, and I wasn't talking about the game"  
"What?"  
"I know face is still a big thing, so don't shame us over there."  
Somewhere outside a car horn sounded. His father looked over at the clock.  
"What are you talking about?"  
"Well that's your cab. Tell Yuu we say hello, and thank his father for letting you stay for the holidays. Your mother packed your bag its beside the door. Here's your passport."  
"**Are you freaking kidding me?**"

November 6 2022

"Come on lay down, its going to go live in about two minutes." Yuu started at him and shooed him to his spot.  
"Here's your nerve gear." Yuu handed him the helmet that was attached to a computer. It's what allowed you to full dive, for the new VRMMORPG type games. Nothing had even come close to using the nerve gear hardware to this degree.  
"Should I be as nervous as I am now? I've never full dived before."  
"Don't worry buddy, once you're in you'll forget any worries you had. I hope you've learned to grovel. Oh and Natsuko here's yours"  
The boys lay down on some futons on the floor, and yuu slipped on his helmet. R stretched out, then reached over and patted Yuu on the shoulder. He hoped that Yuu knew how thankful he was for this. Natsuko took hers helmet and stepped around the boys to claim her spot on the bed. She was oldest, and since her room was the only one with enough space.  
She hadn't said more than two or three words at a time to him the last two days. In fact she barely looked at him. Which was sadly normal. R knew she was painfully shy. He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She was shorter than him, by almost 8 inches, and had wonderfully long hair. The fact she was a year older made the gap between them just that bit wider. She was just so cute. He glanced around her room, a place he'd never been before even when they lived in the same town as him. It was pretty girly, a few stuffed animals on the bed, and pink and red things everywhere. It even smelled slightly of some kind of flowers.

"You comfortable?" Yuu 's voice was muffed from the Nerve gear. R pulled his helmet on and the world became much darker. Like he was wearing super dark sunglasses.  
"I'm good... any last minute things I should know? I mean other than the translation you'll be giving me as we go."  
"Don't trust anything that looks to good to be true." Natsuko's soft voice carried through the room. He was a little surprise she had spoken at all. She rarely spoke to anyone outside of her family that he'd seen.

"OK, so Yuu, you'll translate and don't trust Natsuko as she is too good to be true."  
Yuu made a gagging noise, and there was a long uncomfortable pause where the laugh he hoped to get from Natsuko didn't come. Finally asked  
"Whats your job than?"  
"Sigh, it's to have both of your guys backs and to stay out of the way."  
Yuu laughed. "I've never heard anyone say sigh before."  
The room went quiet after that. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath for a moment as they waited. It wasn't long before all three Nerve Gears let out a soft chime. Almost as one, they said "Link Start"

R let out a quick breath when lights started appearing. Slowly a grey room appeared.  
"Well this is a little underwhelming"  
As he spoke his voice echoed in the grey room. He couldn't even hear the ac in Natsuko's room. "hmm well that's pretty cool. This is getting better."  
A grey full length mirror appeared in front of him. A blank mannequin stared out of it. It looked like one of those artist's wooden pose dolls. As R moved, the mannequin moved with him. He flexed a bit and tried a few poses that was mimicked perfectly.  
A brisk female voice came from the ceiling. It spoke in English, but the voice and accent were Japanese. Interrupting his fun. "Please using your right hand reach as far as you can to your left. Then touch your right knee. When you hear the chime repeat using your left hand and your right side."

These instructions were followed by many others. Each asking him to touch a different part of his body with one hand than the other. When that finally ended, the walls slowly started changing from grey to other colour. Each time the voice asked him to tell it what colours he could see. Every now and then there were other colours mixed in. Red in the green, blue with yellow and such. It took R, a few of them to figure out that it was testing to for colour blindness. After that it ran through some hearing tests, through the room now stayed in colour. Low sounds to high. After that it was temperature test, first the room grew steadily colder and he was shivering, then it grew hotter and started sweating bullets.  
After that a table appeared, and a row of 15 tablets appeared on a silver tray. The first was incredibly sweet, than sour, then so spicy it burned his tongue.  
Once that was done, the tray vanished and in's place boxes appear. Each one, when opened released scented smoke. Some were flowers but R, couldn't placed them. Then for some reason it was a running. First a few feet, then a 10 meters, 30 meters , 100 meters etc. Finally after all that was done and said, he got to take a break. He was surprised at how out of breath he was already. It was a bizarre strain on the body and mind.  
The female voice spoke again. "Please step to the mirror." R, groaned and sat up. This time the mirror had menus in front of it and the reflected image was not that of a blank mannequin but that of a generic young hero. The menu had sliders for just about every facial, and body feature that you could imagine. He was laughing by the time he reached individual finger length and width. It took him over an hour to get the perfect hero. Taller, stronger, and will a few light scars on cheek and necks. R imagined them as training wounds. He thought he looked every bit the hero, and dare he say noble even.  
The last part of making an avatar was the name. Which would be your mail address and chat id for the game. It had to be original, so you couldn't copy someone else name and run amok. He tapped a bit button at the bottom that read confirmation. The room extracted to a single point of light in front of him. He smirked as a line from a book he's father had given to him a few years ago came to mind. He had been complaining that they didn't have a full drive system in the house. At the time they were still new and super expensive. His father laughed and said, "Each book is a full drive system" and gave him that one. It was a book about full drives written before they even existed. In the book that there was a line that always came up before a full dive. So despite his growing excitement he spoke it, in as serious a tone as he could muster.

"Ready player one!"

Then the world came back in. It was everything that Yuu said and more. In almost perfect detail, the world came at him. Or maybe he came at the world, it was really hard to tell. There was a beautiful hillside with prefect green grass, with sparse patches of bright flowers. The sun was warm on the R's skin and scent of water lifted off a near by lake, or maybe it was the ocean. Hanging in the early blue sky is the most important in this world.  
Aincrad, the floating castle. R decided that he was coming at the castle, not the castle coming at him. His carefully crafted avatar flew to the castle. Yuu had told him a bit about it but not much. Apparently it was huge. 100 levels of twisting corridors filled with monsters and adventure. As R was reaching the end of his journey he realized Yuu had been holding out at him. This place was huge, one level wasn't a like the floor of a building, like he thought. It was small world of its own. As his avatar rushed past, he saw layers of deserts, lakes, snow, forests and so much more.  
His character landed in the centre of a large town, called the town of beginnings. There were plenty of players running about already. He was a little surprised at how many people were milling around. All of them were chatting and running about. It was a bit intimidating and a bit fantastic. Since he only knew a few words of Japanese, he didn't understand a thing being said at this break neck speed of speech. Luckily SAO had the option for English in game menus. The menus weren't prefect English though, and sometimes the translations were bizarre but he was thankful for them. Even some of the signs in the streets were in English. Shops had wooded signs with a symbol for what they sold. You know classic video game stuff, hammer and anvil for smiths, potions for item stores, Shirts or breastplates for armor, and swords for weapon merchants. So he wasn't completely screwed. Though a bit of help wouldn't go amiss.

On that note, he checked his messages. Yep there were two emails from someone called Suijin. There was also a message from a player called Benten. I tabbed them open.

_ To: True_

_ Once you stop beautifying yourself, come me at the bridge dues east of where you're probably standing. Oh hey, remember in game handles only. I thought up this great one, and I want to hear people call me by it!  
-Suijin_

To: True  
What is taking so long, its been hours?! Are you stuck, did you fall asleep? What did I tell you about sleep? Don't give in to your weak nature!  
-Suijin

To: True  
I don't think I ever told you my handle. I know what you're thinking, and I came up with mine before Yuu did. So you can tell him that he needs to get a new one and stop copying me. ^.^ Natsuko

_PS. We've been waiting for about almost an hour now. It's a beautiful world, but I want to explore.  
-Benten_

Well crap. According to the time tag on the last message, that was about 15 minutes ago.  
He took off running.

When he reached the bridge, there were two very similar looking avatars standing near enough to each other to be together but just far enough apart to tell they were both very angry. They each had long black hair, large dark eyes, they were lithe and about average in height. The only thing that set them apart was... True blushed as his eyes quickly glanced at the out of proportion chest on female's frame.  
True approached carefully.  
"Hey guys... waiting long?" He tried weakly.  
He felt like he was about to catch fire when two sets of angry eyes burned in to him.  
"What took you so long? Its been an hour and a half since launch! It shouldn't have taken you that long to make a character." The male avatar, Suijin started.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't know we were all suppose to make the same avatar." True shot stupidly at his already angry friends.  
He was ready, so he successfully blocked a quick but friendly blow from Suijin, in fact it was kind of a habit they got themselves into for the last year Yuu had been in north America. That said, the blow to the back of the head from Benten, which wasn't even remotely friendly, was unexpected. In fact it floored him. He almost fell over again at the idea that gentle, quiet Natsuko had actually hit him.  
"Baka, my brother copied me. AGAIN." Benten began.  
True had never heard her raise her voice before.  
"I did not! You copied me. First with the names, and now this." Suijin interjected.  
Aaaand they're off, True thought while rubbing the back of his head. He waited a few minutes before interrupting.  
"How can you create your character any faster? I only spent about ten minutes on the sliders." A lie, but they'd never know.  
Suijin stopped mid insult, and took a breath.  
"So what did you do with the rest of your time? Couldn't find the confirmation button?"  
"No I was in a grey room thing. It had me eating weird stuff and touching things."  
"Oh..."Suijin looked a bit sheepish. "I completely forgot about that. That's something you do the very first time you make a nerve gear account. After that you have to do it about once a year, but that's it. "  
"Enough chatter. Lets get some swords and kill some bad guys, I have some..." Benten glanced at Suijin, "Rage to work off. Plus we brought you here for a reason little brother. You got to play the beta, so where are we going and what are we killing."  
True stared at her, still a little off guard. Rage?  
"Still jealous about that? You could have joined me, oh wait dad only got one beta pass and you wanted to go on that trip with your friends Osaka instead. How was the two days of fun? Still worth passing on two weeks of this?" Suijin let his arms go wide, gesturing to the greatly detailed world.  
Benten smacked him in the same place, she had just smacked True.  
Suijin looked a bit dejected. Then puffed up.  
"OK, I deserve that. But I also deserve some grovelling, where is my grovelling, True? I need it. Its like water to a man in the desert. I need it to live."  
Benten raised her hand.  
"OK, OK, first stop is armor, than weapons."  
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" True asked  
"First no, second the reason for no is I don't want to have keep coming back to town for you guys every time you have to re-spawn. So I'm making sure you have decent armor, and we can work together to take anything out before it kills you."  
True and Benten exchanged an unimpressed look.  
"So lets talk about skills quick. I know this is pretty dry but I told you guys not to mess with them before we talked. That's because some other beta's screwed their ups pretty past. So well go through this as fast as I can.  
Right now you have 6 skill slots, and you can unlock 6 more pretty fast as you level up. First you are going to want to focus on one of the weapon skills that suits you. Here's whats you're looking at, Dagger, straight Blades, curved blades, blunt weapons, two handed sword, two handed assault spear, two handed battle axe, throwing. As you level up skills like one handed sword you'll unlock One handed rapier and two handed sword. Or one handed curved sword unlocks Katana. I've heard rumours of being about to unlock more skills, like martial arts, but I don't know how you get that.  
If you're really talented with a weapon, you can make an outside the system skill. Which we'll not get to before we ship you back home. It takes months to get that good.  
Than you have you're general skills. Which is broken down in to two categories. First non-combat, they are Fishing, Musical Instrument, Singing, Sewing, Cooking, Appraisal, Sales Negotiation, Medicine mixing, Slash weapon forging, thrust weapon forging, blunt weapon forging, light metal forging, and heavy metal forging, repair, Metal refining, familiar recovery, and lastly Familiar Communication. They can be fun but not really useful survival wise. Forget about the Familiar skills, neither of you are lucky enough in life to get one.  
The second part is Passive skills. Tracking, Listening, Detection, Night vision, Acrobatics, Sprint, Extended weight limit, hiding, and x ray vision. Some sound pretty useless survival wise.  
Last set of skills is Combat skills. These are useful so think carefully about them. Parry, Howl(that will attract enemies), Battle healing, Meditation, Light Metal Equipment, Leather Equipment, and Heavy metal Equipment.  
If you pick a weapon and use it, you're skill will go up. The best thing to do if you're not sure about what style fits, is to try a few different weapons.  
OK any questions? No, good now buy some leather armor, and some bracers it will cost you a bit past half of your starter Col. Col is basically gold in the game."  
They did as he said and wandered over to an NPC weapon merchant. All the merchants were currently npc's. In a couple of weeks players would start buying up store fronts in the city and opening their own shops. So you're not stuck with the beginner stuff, until they cleared the floor.

They spent the rest of their money on weapons and a little things. Suijin walked them through the town, showing them the best inn's shops and sights. They all bought some food and nick knacks. They ended up back at the bridge after some time. Suijin leaned against the rail. He was wearing a brace of daggers across his chest and was fiddling with a deck of cards. Benten kept a running translation of passing conversations for True, while checking on her new pink and black choker in the reflection of her large hammer. True had an assault spear strapped to his back, and was rolling some dice...blue dice as he listened to Benten.

"Seriously he's such an ass"  
"Where have the moved the re-spawn zone, I can't find my friend."  
"So, if I eat cake here, it tastes like real cake? Whats the point in that? Probably just a Col sink"  
"Has anyone seen a player called Leafett? He was killed by a boar and I can't find where he would re-spawn."

Suijin looked around at all the players that were wandering past. Some were freshly created running about without armor or weapon. There were a few other already selling some drops from successful hunts to merchants or giving them to other players. It was kind of nice, to watch everyone stream by. It really felt like a city, some place lived in, it helped with the uneasy he felt about the town. It was so new and unnaturally clean gave that it an unreal quality, but the players were a wonderful balance to that.

Suijin clapped his hands to get their attention, "You both look ready, so lets go hunt some boar!"

"You know, I've always liked spears. The elegant balance of range, defence and attack" True said off-handily as he thrust forward, raking the boar across its flank. "Still I wish I could have been a mage. What kind of RPG doesn't have a mage?" He was getting the hang of the sword skill system. You just got in to position, as if you were about to attack. Held that pose, and the system feed your attack power. Than you pictured where you wanted the attack to end up, and the system made the attack for you, and it was really hard to miss. Once you got used to it, you could do a few attacks in a row... at their level, you did it very slowly.  
"I don't see why you're so happy with a stick. My hammer is obviously superior." Benten said. Over the last hour or so, Benten unveiled a vicious streak that True couldn't have imagined in her beautiful and quiet real life self. Already Natsuko and Benten were becoming two separate people in his mind. She took up a baseball batters position, than nodded at True to show she was ready. He moved in front of her, and jabbed at the boar again. After a moment the boar charged, and True jumped aside and the boar charged past. Right in the middle of Benten's hammer blow. True tried to focus on the fight, but her massive new chest swayed in a very distracting way when she did that. The boar stumbled back, not dying like they hoped. The blow stunned it, for a moment. It shook it's head a few times. Before it could get its bearings three daggers hit it in the side of the neck, one after another. A fourth dagger sailed clean over the boar, and thudded in to a tree. The boar shattered in to fragments of blue light as its hit points finally dropped below zero. It sparkled against the darkening sky.  
"I just think it's ...cute... that you guys can only use one weapon at a time." Suijin said, as he tugged the knife that missed from the tree. True looked at Benten and said  
"You know I think I liked you better as Yuu's overly quiet older sister. You've ruined your image in my eyes. Oh cruel fate! You're prophecy from this morning has already come true!"  
Suijin laughed.  
"What prophecy is that?" Benten said with a thin layer of ice in her voice.  
"Don't trust anything that seems to good to be true. Like a talking Natsuko."  
Suijin didn't laugh this time. He looked over at True with a piteous expression.  
"You never knew how good you had it, and its over now. She will never stop talking now. You're Venus has fallen from the heavens to smash upon the jagged earth of reality...in a game."  
"I...HAVE...A...HAMMER!" Benten yelled. She took a few determined steps towards them and assumed a skill stance.  
"Whoa whoa!"Suijin began. "You don't want to do that"  
"Why, ever not? I do feel so very much like crushing you both with my lovely hammer." Benten said through clenched teeth.  
"First of all, you can challenge us to a duel, which when we accept will allow you to smash to us to your delight. Well, it won't kill his avatar, but it will keep an official record of you beating him on your, and his characters. If you attack us now, you'll go orange, and believe me you don't want that."  
Benten's hand flickered to her menu.  
A box with a challenge appeared before True. He gulped, and with a very shaky hand reached slowly forward to accept. Somewhere in the distance a bell started to gong. It wasn't really fair. True knew he couldn't fight full out against her. He cursed, than manned up, and tapped accept.  
The duel was brief. True was down and out fast enough. Before the words "Benten Wins!" appeared between them, a box appeared before Suijin. True got to his feet, his hit points which were in the red, were very, very slowly restoring. Suijin hit the decline button to his sisters challenge.  
"You can refuse? I mean I know there is a button, but..." True said, then glanced at Benten "I don't think that's very smart."  
"It's OK True, I like the colour orange. My name will look good in orange." She began.  
"Orange is very bad. Orange means you hurt other players, which means other people will avoid you and NPCs wont trade with you. If you happen to reduce me zero hit points, you're name will go red. As a Player Killer, you're fair game to other players, who can kill you with out issue, and they will. Partly from a sense of justice, and partly to loot your character.  
So today's duels are done." Suijin smiled confidently. That look flickered as he looked at his sisters steady and widening smile. Benten looked wolfish at the male version of her own avatar.  
"I've nothing to lose. We're only level three!"  
Benten charged, and with all her strength her hammer came from his left side straight towards her brothers skull.  
To Suijin, the world suddenly went blue.

The three of them had been force teleported from the field, in to the main square of the starter town. Benten didn't notice... or True was starting to expect, didn't care and finished her swing. Suijin went sailing in to others players near by, he didn't take any damage since the town was a non pvp zone. Still it looked like it hurt.  
The other players looked pretty annoyed at having a body slam in to them. Their tones were enough to tell True that, even though he didn't understand exactly what was said. There were a few panicked voices here and there, probably from being forced here so suddenly. True smiled, of course there was going to be a special event, I mean it was opening day. As he thought this, the sky filled with red warning signs. Blood began leaking from the sky, it gathered in mid air, and formed a giant faceless red robed avatar.  
Well a bit grisly for my tastes but yep, I called that, thought True.  
The huge figure spoke in rich Japanese voice. It was only slightly modulated by the system. Just enough so there was no mistake that wasn't a persons actual voice. After each sentence Suijin translated.

_Attention Players.  
Welcome to my world.  
My name is Kayaba Akihiko._

"Is he a boxer like in that game you made me play?" True whispered to Suijin. Who just smirked as he continued.

_As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world.  
_

The crowd of players around True started whispering at this.

_I'm sure you've already noticed that the log out button is missing from the main menu._

True and quite a few of the others quickly checked their menu's. He hadn't noticed, but the giant avatar was right, there wasn't a log out option.

_But this is not a defect in the game.  
I repeat this is not a defect.  
It is a feature of Sword Art Online._

True could hear, pride in the avatars voice as he said this.

_You can not log out of SAO yourselves.  
And..._

Suijin voice was starting to fail, but he took a deep breath and carried on.

_And no one outside can shut down or remove the Nerve Gear.  
Should this be attempted, The transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will_

_ emit a powerful... a powerful microwave_.

Again Suijin's voice faltered, this time it came back as only a whisper. He stopped translating here, just stared open mouth at the robed giant in the sky.  
The crowd around True was gasping, and looking frightened. What ever it had said, True could tell it was bad. Though powerful microwave didn't really need anything following it up. Voices of panic and outrage started to pop up in the crowd, but the avatar ignored them and carried on. Suijin didn't translate at first, until True shook him, and hissed "I need to know. I have a right to know." Slowly Suijin carried on.

_Sadly, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and  
tried to remove the Nerve Gear._

Sweet gods, Suijin whispered. True shook him again.

_213 players have left Aincard and the real world._  
Browser windows popped up around the robed avatar. True could see news sites in various languages from around the world. Some had pictures of SAO, or the nerve gear, and not one of the news agents looked happy. Pictures of kids and adults were flashing by, the only thing text was at the marque at the top, saying in English "Multiple victims in online game incident." Suijin had started talking but True hadn't hear him. One of the news windows had a young girl sobbing in her mothers arms.  
The avatars tone shifted again, now slightly encouraging. True felt bile rise in his throat.

_I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game.  
I want you to remember clearly that there is no longer any method to revive_

_ someone with in the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be  
forever lost, and the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain._

Suijin's repeated this is a mechanical voice. The browsers around him began to close as he said this. It was expert speechcraft, to drive the point the home. To True it said your life will wink out like a browser window. The crowd was motionless.

There was the stick, True thought. Now where is the carrot?

_There is only one means of escape.  
To complete the game.  
You are all on the lowest floor. Floor one.  
If you make your way to, and defeat the floor boss, you may advance  
to the next level.  
Defeat the final boss, floor 100, and you will clear the game._

The crowd burst out in a thousand small conversation. The word Clear was spoken in English all around True, but most of the voices were saying it with disbelief, fear and panic in their voices.

_Lastly, I've added a present from me to your inventory. Please see  
for yourselves. _

Almost at once, thousands of people were calling up their inventories. Desperately hoping, like True was, that it was something that would keep them alive. Something that said it was all a horrible and vastly unfunny joke. There was a Mirror under his items tab. True tapped the word, and a small steel hand mirror fell in to his hand. All around him people were looking confused at their menu, or already staring in to their mirror. True did the same. His avatar stared back at him. Around him blue light started enveloping people near by. He glanced up at them, than quickly back at the mirror. This time it wasn't his avatar staring back.  
White, blue light covered every inch of him, making him a human torch for just a moment. Everyone in the square was covered in a matter of seconds, then as quickly as it happened, it faded away. True's vision was a little wonky for a moment, like he had a bad case of vertigo. He looked to Suijin and Benten to make sure they were alright. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't looking at twin avatars but where they were standing, Yuu and Natsuko stood. He looked at the mirror in his hand and his own face looking shocked and afraid stared back. They didn't say anything, looked at each other. The avatar started to speak again.

_Right now you're probably wondering "why?"  
Why would the creator of SAO and the Nerve Gear do this?  
My goal has already been reached.  
I created SAO for one reason.  
To create a world and intervene in it, and now its complete._

The voice of the avatar was incredibly smug. Each word that rolled out of its empty head was thick with self satisfaction.

_This Ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch._

The three of them drew closer to each other. Suijin put his hands on each of their shoulders drawing them closer to him. They watched as the avatar was sucked in to the ground like smoke raising in reverse. There was a long moment, where no a single soul in the square made a noise. They didn't even breathe.

Then everything was chaos.

Authors Notes.

-So first proper attempt at fanfitcion. I've been wanting to do some writing but my own short stories have hit a wall, so a friend suggested this. I know the opening is rough, as I was trying to find a grove. If you want to beta read, I'd love the help.

-I know this was pretty slow to start, and I went through all the technical stuff I could about skills(all from the SAO wiki! Kirino says he had 12 skills by level 50)

- I decided to start writing this while listening to the audiobook of Ready Player One. I was thinking about how interesting a full dive would be. I thought about the fact that there was 10000 players in SAO, and how it might be neat to see one or two of their tales.

-R/True is not me. As I don't believe in writing yourself in to a story. He is how ever based off an unsuspecting friend of mine. Luckily one that has never seen or read SAO. So odds on him finding out are slim. That said if by chance you're reading this, remember you did say I could use you in a short story!  
The idea for R coming from North America and not knowing japanese came to me, since I spent 7 months in China not knowing the language at all.

-I didn't want to mess with canon, so I'll stick as close to the actually story line as I can. So while I plan to have the actual characters pop in and out of the story, it will be more of a cameo. My characters will have their own events and will rarely take place in major story events of SAO books/anime. They will not become best friends with the real characters. I'll try to keep it to a few lines of dialogue, so my guys knowing more about them the real characters as events unfold and their fame grows will of course happen. Who in the game doesn't hear about Kirito the black beater that clears the first floor, right?

-Suijin is a Japanese water god, while Benten is a Japaneses luck goddess(though I think someone once told me she was stolen from the Hindu pantheon). Since they both chose names from deities that's why they accused each other of copying the idea.

-Oh and this story might hit an M rating as it progresses. Depends on how violent I decide to make the story in the end. That said, you want to out you're likeness's fate in my hands I could always use a few more characters to toss in. Just tell me your handle(character name) and your first six skills. Understand I will try to give you a decent place but keep in mind that not even my main characters are safe from death in SAO.

-Lastly, the boxer comment, was a play off of name Akihiko, which is one of the main characters from the play station 2 game Persona 3. Personally I thought Persona 4 is a better game, but the feel of going endlessly up a tower, level by level from persona 3 fit SAO much better.


	2. Chapter 2 - Rules of Survival

Chapter 2: The rules of survival

"The Rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena – Bear Grylls"

November 6th 2022.

After the shocking announcement, people went crazy. Some people, the smarter ones, took off running the minute everything fell apart. Others people broke down, some just went to their knees and cried. Others were angry, fist fights broke out in the crowd. No one could be truly hurt, but the violence of a release to some. Yuu had grabbed his sisters arm and let them to the edge of the crowd. True followed along, as the two of them started talking to other groups of players near by. He was basically forgotten.  
Fast flying Japanese came stabbing at him from all angles, people trying to talk to him, or conversations flooding in or over from the crowd. True felt extremely isolated and alone suddenly. His friend was still at his side, but the world was against him. He couldn't understand anything. It was shocking how helpless that could make you feel.  
After what felt like hours of people running around, shouting, arguing and cursing the gods, groups were forming in the crowd. Suijin and Benten found him sitting on the edge of a planter with tree growing in it. Suijin looked carefree but Benten looked withdrawn. True looked at them, both still so similar even though their avatars were gone. You could see the family resemblance between them in a second. Both were slim and short. Benten had a bit fairer skin and slightly darker hair.  
"It sounds like, this is actually happening" Suijin started, he puffed out his chest a bit trying but failing to look solemn and important.  
"It seems were actually trapped in here, for now."  
True looked up at his best friend in the world, now his fellow prisoner.  
"For now?" he asked.  
Suijin laughed.  
"Of course for now! You underestimate us Japanese. We have some of the best police in the world. Some of the best hackers too. You don't think that someone can't break in to the servers and turn this game off? It'll be a week, two at most. See that guy?" Suijin pointed to heavy set man in the centre of a large group of people. He was talking with a loud voice that sounded a bit condescending to True, even if he couldn't understand what was said. He maybe mid-twenties and prematurely balding.  
"That guy is the favourite nephew of the Gojiro corporation's CEO. That's a huge tech firm, that had been competing for the server security contract. They lost to the Toto group, but there is no way they won't pull out all the stops to get us out. So, were trapped in a game for a few days." Suijin's smile was wide and genuine. "That just means we won't have to log out for days! Think of it as an extended vacation, that millions of people would be jealous of! People will pay for experiences like this, mark my words."  
His sister scoffed at that, breaking her quiet demeanour. She shot a disgusted look at her brother, then at True making sure he didn't dare to agree to with Suijin. He quickly raised his hands in surrender.  
"Pay to have their lives hang in the balance of a game? We've basically been kidnapped, people don't pay for that."  
Suijin raised his hands too.  
"We are in the most advanced game in the world. Look around, look at the details on this tree alone. Fell the sun on your skin and the breeze through the buildings. We aren't really in danger in here. Do you really think people have died playing this game? It's a bluff. We can't log out, and others can't log in. Kayaba Akihiko just wants us to play _like_ our lives are on the line. There is no way he's killing the people that die, they're just getting kicked out. This place is a paradise of a sorts, and those that are found wanting are us kicked out. It's genius really. He just wants us to play to our fullest! Daring us to to risk everything."  
"Are you insane? Did you know not see the news, people died!"  
The image of the crying young girl flashed in to True's mind. Benten continued  
"I know suffering when I see it and those people were suffering. Don't pretend this is all one big happy game, where instead of dying you get a puppy and a passing grade at the end." Benten shot back. Suijin had always been the playful optimist. It took a lot to get him down. Benten on the other hand was a mystery to True. She wasn't the quiet and gentle Natsuko that in the real world was lying about 3 feet away from him. He had no idea what to expect from her now. She was violent, and quirky. Still what she was saying made a lot more sense to him, then what Suijin was.  
"Look, I'm just saying their is no point in worrying about it. We can just enjoy this for the next few days and it'll all be over."  
Benten sighed, as she replied. "You're right there, I don't think this will carry on for long. I'm just saying lets not be stupid. We don't have to play. We can stay in town and be safe. If we lose. I. We. "she stumbled. "If you think he was trying to scare us, well he did a good job. I'm scared. I have tests to study for. A week in this game is more time than I want to be here. I was suppose to go to the beach tomorrow with Mika-chan and Taro-kun." She wrapped her arms around herself as she talked.  
Suijin looked at his sister and his smile faded slightly.  
"You know were not going to test that dying theory right? We're going to stay alive until they get us out. I won't let anything happen to you. Plus, their are three of us. Just imagine how horrible it would be to be to try and play alone right now."  
Those words seemed to break Benten. Suijin had his arms around her in a flash. That was the first time True saw her cry.

They found an Inn for the night. Suijin explained a lot of the conversations and grouping up in the courtyard had been useless. People tossing out rumours, hopes and fears about what was happening. No one knew what was going on outside the game, and very few people knew that was happening in the game. They also decided to stick to online names only. Two names could get confusing, and for the next week or two, others would only know their online identities.  
The real work would start in the next few days. They talked long in to the night about their plans and in the end, Suijin's optimism started to infect True. He even talked his sister in to going out in to the field outside of town tomorrow. It really wasn't so bad being in a game like this. He was only going to be in japan about six weeks, so if they played the game for first week or two, that was nothing. Afterwards he could play the tourist, and force Yuu to be a tour guide. Until then being forced to spend time with your best friend and his sister wasn't exactly hell. By the time True's eyes started to close, he felt a little excited to see this world that was their jail.

The second day was the worst day that True had ever experienced. It happened in three ways. Things started off alright. Suijin, True and Benten met up just as the sun was rising across the plane of level 1. They formed a party like they had the day before, and went out. Suijin insisted they stay in a party even if they weren't out in the fields with the monsters. He was right, it was surprisingly reassuring to see their life bars under True's own.  
The first thing they needed to do, was get food. By the gods of Aincard, True was starving. Even if this was a game, he felt like he hadn't eaten in a day or two. What kind of game makes the players hungry? The in game food didn't nourish someone, or anything but if you didn't eat you became hungry. Hungry to the point of distraction. The vendors only sold a few things, the only one that was cheap was bread. It was dry, and a bit tough. True's grandfather had a saying, "Hunger is the best sauce." Anything you ate while hungry tasted better than it would normally. If that was so, this bread was utterly dreadful.  
He choked it down, and looked at the others. They looked to be enjoying the bread just as much as he was. The bread was the start of it all. Anyway you looked at it, it had the feel of bad prison food. That image was just one of a hundred gentle reminders that you were trapped.  
"Food in a game is really a horrible thing" True said.  
The others looked at him, somewhat thankful to be distracted a little from the bread.  
"Well think about it. It's only in the game to cost a character money. Our avatar bodies don't need to eat to survive, but the game makes us. So we have to buy food. That mechanic is only in this game to keep players from amassing to much money to quickly. I mean, this is horrible bread. For three times the price we can buy better bread. After a few more meals like this, I'm going to buy that bread. I'm going to spend the extra Col and if that bread is only OK, I will weep for the joy of it."  
Benten burst out laughing.  
"I will too!" Suijin added with a chuckle, then tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe one of us should take the cooking skill." He looked at his sister when he said this.  
"Not a chance. I cook already at home, who makes the lunches for school? Me! I'm not going to cook for you all over again in a game. You want a virtual experience, you cook! You'll not get a grain of rice from me. I swear, just because I'm a woman."  
"Whoa, calm down. Calm down. I only said it because you're a good cook. Also, someone may want to eat your home cooking." He nudged True with his elbow at this. True shot him a dirty look. Suijin replied with a wink and carried on, "and considering how much you're top has shrunk since the game has started, I wouldn't say you're a woman yet!"  
Benten hammer smashed in to the side of her brothers head. Once, twice, three times. Since they were still in town it didn't drop his Hp. Each blow looked like it hurt even though it only caused a minor knock back effect. Suijin having been knocked off the bench they had been sitting on, tried to crawled under it to escape the blows. It was only when other players near by started laughing, that Benten started to calm down. Her breath came out ragged as she spoke.  
"You... want to... come out from... under that bench?"  
"Yes" replied a weak voice.  
"Then I expect you to master cooking! And..."She looked down at her drastically reduced chest, "and never mention that top thing again. Or together we'll test you're theory on people not really dying."  
"I agree, stop hitting me. Stop hitting me!"  
True started laughing. With these two, it wasn't going to be a boring week.

Afterwards that they walked around town. It hadn't even been 12 hours since the announcement but the town had drastically changed. Now players shuffled about, or ran place to place with a bit of panic. It didn't fell lively or fun anymore. It was horribly clean, and fresh. With everyone looking miserable. The place reeked of depression and fear. They spent the little money they have earned the day before on a single healing potion. They really didn't do much, but it was better than nothing in a pinch. There was also a guide book available for free at the item vendors. Benten and Suijin both got a copy, but as it was in Japanese it was of no use to True. It was a guide to the first 5 levels of Aincard. Monsters, what they dropped and their attack patterns, field information, some quests and the location of safe towns. It was a very useful little book. It seemed to be have made from the information the Beta testers had collected.  
Even with the awful atmosphere, it took most of the morning to gather the courage to leave the town. There was a crowd of players gathered around the exit, all seeming like they were trying to do the same thing. There were a very few who strolled about confidently, wandering in and out of town at will without regard to the monsters. Mostly beta testers or the insanely brave. There were some people recruiting players in to parties. True was all for joining one, but Suijin vetoed that as fast as he could.  
"The way it is right now, we can't trust new players."  
True couldn't believe his friend just said that. Suijin caught the look on True's face and started to explain.  
"If something goes horribly wrong I trust you guys to leave me and get out of there."  
Benten made a choking noise when her brother said this.  
"Or if things go a little bad, I trust you to to save me. I also trust you guys to know which is which. For the record, its always save Suijin." He laughed at his own joke before carrying on.  
"With a new untrained player, someone you don't know, you have no idea how they will react to a situation. At this point they are more likely to get one of us hurt. Or worse testing my theory. Some of these guys are people I saw in the beta. They think they are being smart to gather a big party. I know five members is the max, but if you start off that big without knowing each other in or out of game, you're in for trouble. Very few people have the ability to pull people together in that way. I sure don't have it.  
So we are going to stick to just us for a while. We all have very different styles and we need to get them to work together. We've barely used our own weapons. I mean, the game's called Sword Art Online, and none of us are even using a sword. So we fight together against the easiest things we can find, and when were good enough that we can protect ourselves then, and only then will we party with others. We can even make a guild. Oh man we could make a great guild together! Just think, With my brains, and Benten's blood lust we'd be unstoppable"  
Benten glowered, and even knowing that he was being baited, True asked  
"And me?"  
Suijin gave him an appraising look over.  
"You are our, all important, Mascot" Then he sighed.  
"To bad you won't be able to play for a year when you go home. By that time I'll probably be bored of this game, having beaten it two or three times and you'll call me crying, begging me to play with you. Don't worry, when you call, I'll come play with you since were friends and all."  
"You realize that in this world, I can cut you, and I'll find salt. This game has everything else!"

So for a while they worked together killing boars and the occasional rather helpless looking rabbit that wandered by. At first they're weren't that many people out, but as the day progressed more and more people came out. They took a break for a late lunch and when they choked down their bread the field outside the town of beginnings was packed. Beta players and other more confident people leading groups to boar spawn points near by. Soon there wasn't a free point for love or Col. People started going farther out.  
Suijin found them a new point at the edge of the field, next to a forest. So the three of them would kill a boar, wait about four or five minutes, it would pop up and they'd kill it again. It was a slow way to gain experience. One boar shared between three people, but it was safe, and they could try things. They discovered something pretty useful in the guide book. You could drop skills to free a slot. It would that skill back to level 1 all the points you put into it were lost. Still you could learn a different weapon if you're style didn't fit, Due to that Suijin made sure they didn't spend the points they gained as they levelled up. He made them swap weapons with each other and try different things.  
Since they got to rest between each fight, it wasn't that straining on them. So they kept at it for a few more hours. Still fighting in this world was physically demanding. Muscles started to protest and you grew tired.  
The sun was just starting to set when they had just decided to kill three or four more boars and stop for the day. That was when things took the second turn for the worse. More and more people had come out from the town. Groups started lining up for spawn points as people grew tired. There had to be over a thousand people in the area. They even had a pair of people waiting politely for them to finish. People were pushing themselves, having people waiting added a touch of pressure, since it kind of felt like they were judging your every move.  
They got a good pattern down. A boar would pop. Suijin would toss a dagger, claiming it as their prey to the server. Then he would slash and dodge. His leather armor and acrobat skill making him light and fast. The boar would charge either True or Benten. True who would set his spear against its charge and if he was lucky to hit a vital spot kill it in one thrust, if not it would carry on to Benten. She was the official tank of the group. Her heavy armor, and shield made her slow but the boar could do little damage as she swung her hammer around. If it was attacking Benten, True and Suijin would move in for support while she kept aggro.  
The trouble started with a group about four spawn points down the line. There was panic shouting, and as True looked over, blue fragments scattered. It took him about three whole seconds to realize that there was a boar charging through the sparks. A player had just died.  
Someone screamed near the now turning boar, there was a man on the ground and the boar charged. It seemed to True that the player had time to get out of the way. Instead they just crouched there frozen. More blue fragments burst in to the air. True watched the sparks, and part of his mind detached from the outrage of his emotions started making notes. Apparently there was no visible difference between a player and a monster dying. The boar charged on, and smashed in to a third player, who spun and bounced away. Two people had just died.  
Suijin's warning cry cut through the scene and True snapped his head back around. While he had been distracted, the boar they were waiting on had spawned. True was able to get a great look at the detail they had put in to it. He could even count it the individual strands of fur, as it closed the last few inches and slammed into him. It was the first time a monster had really hit him. Its tusks tore in to True's stomach and knocked the wind from his lungs, then he was tumbling away. It hurt a little, not nearly enough to be realistic thankfully. Just a quick light sting. A red digital cut appeared, along the line where he had been hit. It faded after a second. His battle healing was active so he saw his life tick up every so slightly. With that one hit, he was just below half health. His starter light metal armor hadn't done much to soften the damage.  
True's real problem became apparent a moment later. He couldn't breath. He could barely move with the want of air. He was trying to gasp only he couldn't. He know his real body was somewhere safe breathing normally but he . With sudden clarity, he realized why the player had be lying on the ground, and why he hadn't been able to get out of the way of the boar. Why that player had died. He could feel he ground shake slightly, and he knew the boar was charging back at him. All he could do was clutch at his chest and try to breath. He couldn't roll, couldn't move, or do anything. He was helpless.  
There was a challenging howl of rage from True's left and then pain as the boar trampled his legs. His hp dropped again, his Hp went in the red as the bar slid closer to empty, then thankfully, it had stopped falling. He lay on the ground until he finally started to gasp in enough air. He hadn't died, but it had been close. Far to close.  
It still took him about two minutes to stand, and his legs felt rubbery. The fight was long over. Benten had used her howl skill to get the boar to attack her, which is why it only trampled his legs instead of goring him properly again. The pair of players who had been waiting had jumped in to help fight when they saw True go down. Now the four of them were speaking rapidly in Japanese. He wondered what they were calling the stupid foreigner that almost died to a boar.  
He would have thought it was embarrassing to die from the weakest monster in the game, but that scream a few minutes ago and the blue sparks that followed were enough to quell the thought. People were dying to boars.  
He stumbled on the first step, but regained his balance with he remnants of his dignity. He walked to the group and bowed low to the new comers. "Domo arigato" He knew he pronounced it badly. Still it was almost his entire vocabulary. They bowed slightly back, and responded in Japanese. Suijin replied in Japanese, saying something like, he only speaks English. The two let out an "Ooh?" sound, that people tended to make when they found out something interesting, like a puppy could already roll over. Yep, it was day two of this day, and the language barrier was already getting to him.  
More rapid Japanese followed. True put his hands on his knees as he waited and after a while, Suijin motioned for them to take the spawn point, and everyone bowed again. It was over all a decent meeting, with people that jumped in to help a stranger out. He knew he was being just a little bitter since they had to jump in to save him. Part of that rage born of the shock of coming that close to death. Even in the real world he had only come close to death once or twice. An illness when he was two, and almost getting hit by a car when he was in grade one. Both childhood things, that were easy to ignore now.  
That boar. The image of it so close and clear. That is what nightmares are made of. Couple that with the man being run down, that image of the girl sobbing during the announcement, and he knew what his dreams were going to be like for a few days.  
Suijin grabbed his shoulder and started leading him away.  
His sister spoke to him first,  
"Drink the potion, you're in the red, and your battle healing will take to long. We have enough boar tusks and skins to get a few more once we get back to town."  
"Were heading back to town now, I'd rather not waste it."  
Both of them looked at True at this.  
"Don't you know the rules of survival?" Suijin asked.  
"What rules?" True elegantly replied  
"Drink the potion and I'll tell you the rules."  
True gave in, and started drinking the potion. It tasted of cherry's,Strawberries and chalk.  
"They're pretty simple, and in the guide book, but its really common sense stuff. I'll give you my version since theirs is really wordy.

Rule 1 - Never let yourself drop below yellow outside a safe zone. This world isn't static. Events involving monsters can and will take place.  
Rule 2 - Avoid attacking anything of higher level. Overpower every enemy you can  
Rule 3 - Don't wander the world alone, but don't take candy from strangers either.  
Rule 4 - Become strong to avoid being prayed on by those who are. The fittest are ones at the top.

That's it. Those are the rules. Well,they really had about ten or so listed, but the rest I crammed them in to my four."  
"Candy and strangers eh?"  
"That's just good life advice, and you my friend could always use life counselling. I mean look at the chain of choices that lead you in to this sorry mess."  
"You did! You lead me in to this mess! You promised the latest candy, and I fell for it!"  
"See, lesson learned!"  
"You're both idiots" Benten added helpfully.  
"We are! We both really are." True exclaimed. The boys held each other at arms length and looked each other over, than hugged, saying "We're idiot! We're Idiot!" over and over again.  
It wasn't really funny, but they all started laughing, the tension of the day bleeding out in those laughs.

They were almost to town when things got worse for the third time. The sun had almost completely set at this point, and players were still out in throngs. Quite a few giving up for the day, either weary from hunting, or frustrated at not being able to find a free spot. There were plenty more happily waving bladed weapons of some kind through the air. There must have a been three thousand or so players milling about.  
A wolf howled in the forest. Which everyone not directly next to the forest pretty much ignored. A few moments later there was a second howl. Then a third. A few more players took notice, but didn't really know what to make of it, or care. In the span of a few seconds 10 more howls went up, and everyone was paying attention. There was a foreboding pause as everyone who wasn't directly fighting looked to the woods.  
It wasn't apparent who started running first, but in a few moment there was a flood of players running from the woods. With quick flashes of movement, and more howls behind them. Almost all of the players that had been near the forest line where running towards the town,when the wolves started coming out. Most stayed in the woods but some came loping out in to the field. Not very far, but threatening. Their were still a couple of players near by. Through the press of the crowd around him True watched a few wolves charge those that stayed behind.  
Those players were ready for them. From what he could see they were quickly slaughtering the wolves. That wasn't the problem. With in moments the crowd of new players had completely panicked. The mob of people fleeing only gathered steam as more swelled its ranks. Soon the majority of those fleeing for the town didn't even know why they were running only that everyone else was afraid for their lives.  
Soon the press of people were pushing past True, knocking in to him. He tried to manoeuvre his way through, but it was a sea of humanity on the road. He kept getting knocked away. Benten screamed and True couldn't see her. He couldn't see Suijin in the crowd either. He was carried about 10 feet, before he noticed both Suijin and Benten's life draining. They bars both hung below his own. He got knocked back again. That helpless feeling started to well up in him again.  
Before he knew what he was doing, True had his spear out, and started swatting at people around him. With in seconds he was a rock in the river, people stopped bumping in to him and tried to avoid the wooden shaft. He started pressing forward screaming out their names. Benten's life bar had stopped dropping but Suijin's was in the yellow and still falling.  
There was someone else fighting the throng near True. It seemed like a good idea to work together. He started bashing his way over. It took precious seconds to get there, as Suijin's health slid lower and lower. The looks of terror on peoples faces seem to get worse as they streamed by.  
The other fighter was a tall Asian man with a giant two handed axe. He was in his late 30's if True had to guess. He looked extremely out of place in armor, more like someone accustom to an expensive suit. He was swinging his axe around and knocking people that got to close with the flat of the blade. Still digital red cuts were appearing on those he hit. The man's name was floating about his head in bright orange lettering. Ryogi.  
Behind Ryogi, sprawled on the crowd was Benten. Her hair was loose and her hammer and shield were no where in sight. She had tears in her eyes as she staring at something just above Ryogi's shoulder. True glanced, but didn't see anything. Then he realized that is where his and Suijin's health were on her screen.

True called out her name and stepped closer to the axeman defending his friend. The tall man glanced over and made eye contact with True. Something passed between them in that instant. He took a step to the side, and True moved in to fill the gap. They stayed out of each others weapons range, but had an area of overlap that was right in front of Benten. They worked together to herd people around them.  
The crowd was suddenly thicker and more desperate. A few had weapons drawn as they charged passed. One man took a swing at True's head with a long sword. With the crowd, it felt like the world closed in around him. Suddenly it wasn't a crowd of players around him, but a real threat. The longsword sunk deep in to his cheek and slashed out. If that had happened in real life, he would have been out of the fight for sure, probably lost some teeth as well. Instead his cheek stung for a brief moment then faded. He used his spear as a staff, bashing and dodging the many hands, blades and bodies that came his way.  
It was almost like a dream, everything became automatic. Thrust, sweep, thrust, jab. Aim for hands, weapons, sides. The game's combat system had kicked in and was assisting his fight.  
Suddenly a throwing needle pierced his shoulder, and a young man's came at him straight on. He was maybe a year or two older than True. His wasn't by any means a handsome kid. His hair looked greasy, and his cheeks was a landscape of pimples and craters. His nose was crooked, and his eyes weren't level. His left was much higher than his right. They were light brown and shone with a wild and violent intensity. Beyond that there was a total, and consuming fear. It would be a face that True would never forget after that day. One that burned its way in to his soul.  
True had just deflected another player, and this kid was making use of the fact True was open after his swing. He came tumbling on. True didn't think, he hadn't let himself think since he first got sliced. His spear came flashing on. There was no way to mediate the blow. The metal head of the spear sliced through the kids leather armor, and he felt it sink deep. He saw the kid's eyes go wide. True didn't care, he just kept fighting. With almost casual motions, he flung the kid to the side. He didn't watch him slide of the spear head, but instead snapped his haft around to sweep another player to the side.  
The kid landed just to his right. Still in his line of sight. He crumpled to the ground and with in seconds was being trampled by the people behind him. True didn't notice anything past that just looking for the next threat, until the blue fragments burst in to the air. He didn't quite understand what that meant at first. Then as suddenly as it began, the crowd was gone. All the fleeing players were past.  
Still on auto pilot, True was looking for the next threat, he spun around to face the mob. For a very brief second, some part of him wanted to chase them. To swing his spear at their vulnerable backs, to attack, to kill.  
As he thought that last part. A plume of blue fragments rose into the air. Then another near the gate. It was almost like fireworks were being set off in the crowd. Like the grim reaper was reaching down and grabbing people at random from the crowd. As he lifted them out, they shattered blue.  
True was on his knees. Retching. It was a mechanical emotional response as the horror of what he was seeing sunk in. His avatar was not able to be sick. It could feel ill, or nauseous when something added a status effect, but wasn't able to physically be sick.  
_Oh god. Oh god what have I done?  
I killed that Kid. It was me, I did it. _  
True started to shake all over huge full body racking tremors. Tears stung his eyes, and quickly started to fall. It had been a long time since True had cried in real life, and it almost surprised him out of his grief at how real these virtual tears felt. So warm against his skin as they slid down his cheeks and dripped on the grass.  
_What the hell have I done... this was only suppose to be a game.. I... that kid... _  
A strong hand gripped his shoulder, and pulled him up. He had trouble seeing through his tears. He made out the tall form of the axe wielding player, Ryogi.  
"Snap out of it. It's not over yet. Don't fall to pieces yet. You can do that when you get back to safety." he shook True roughly as he said this.  
"Come on boy we're still in danger."  
Ryogi dragged him a few steps then let him go.  
"Girl, can you get up? Are you alright?"  
That got True's attention. His heart stopped and a cold dread filled him.  
Benten.  
Suijin.  
_No no no no, Suijin, you better be alright. You have to be. _  
He blinked his eyes cleared looked at the life bars. He wanted to look, but at the same time part of him couldn't look. It was a struggle to force his eyes up, knowing full well that if it was the worse case he would lose his own mind.  
His own bar was red, maybe a tenth left.  
Benten was still green, but on the verge of yellow.  
It took every once of willpower he possessed to look at Suijin's life bar. His best friend, and in all the important ways other than blood, his brother's life was red. In fact it was about twice as full as his own. Suijin was alive.  
True fell to his knees again and fresh tears fell. He had never, in his entire life been that happy. He palmed away the tears and got back up. Suddenly embarrassed about crying in front of Benten and this stranger.  
Benten was looking at him with an expression he didn't know. She had half stepped towards him, and right arm was half way extended to him. Her expression faded to open concern, then fear, anger and half a dozen others in seconds. Her voice broke a little, despite her harsh tone as she spoke.  
"You're just so stupid! You could have died."  
True looked abashed, he almost did die. Twice in less than an hour. He really was incredibly stupid. It was starting to feel like he didn't have a handle on his emotions either. He was going up and down like a cheap yo-yo.  
Ryogi coughed, to get their attention. True looked to the older man. He was leaning on his axe, and there was a visible sheen of sweat on his forehead. Seeing it made True realize how tired he was as well.  
"First, get those needles out before the last of your health drains away." Ryogi said.  
True looked and indeed his life was lower than it had been. He looked down, and not one like he thought, but four needles were sticking out him in various places. He pulled each out, and when prompted, put them in to his inventory.  
"Now girl, True, we have to get going. We need to get in to town as quickly as we can." Ryogi started. True twitched when his name spoken. How could this man know it? It wasn't visible to other players, unless they were in the same party.  
Ryogi raised an eyebrow at True's flinch.  
"You're wondering how I know you're name aren't you?" Again True flinched, this time at how transparent he must have been.  
"Well this isn't the time for formal introductions, but I'm Ryogi. Though I assume you knew that already. I know your name for the same reason."  
"Your name is orange" Benten added, "and my name is Benten." She bowed as she said this.  
"Thank you for saving me when I fell."  
That made sense, but it was still a shock to True. Orange, not red. Orange meant you had only hurt other players. Red meant you killed someone. His name should have been red. He killed that kid.  
"We have to find my brother first." Benten said "We lost him in the crowd and his life is very low."  
"We can't" Ryogi said. "If we don't get back in the safe zone as fast as we can, we will be attacked." When he said we, he pointed to True and himself.  
"A lot of people are going to be very angry. They were frightened, they were hurt, and they will want to find someone to blame. Two people with orange names in this are will make too tempting a target. If your brother is still alive than he will head to town. Its the safest place and the easiest place to find people. It's simple rules of survival for the moment."  
Benten looked like she was going to protest for a moment, but nodded in the end.  
They didn't talk much as they headed to town. Other stragglers were making their way to town too, but everyone seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement. Each group kept their distance from others.  
As they passed through the gate, in to the safety of the town, True felt compelled to speak.  
"Thank you for saving my friend, and helping me defend her. Most would have left her." Images of the plumes rising from the crowd flashed to his mind. People had been crushed under foot that way. People had died, since they weren't lucky enough to have someone like Ryogi near by to protect them. True closed this eyes to the images and carried on.  
"I know its not really fitting with the rules of survival, so let me offer my most sincere gratitude. We both owe you a debt."  
Ryogi looked a bit embarrassed at the words.  
"No, it fits with the rules. I think it counts as scavenge" He said with a smile.  
"I understand what you mean, but my English is a bit incomplete. I've not heard the word sincere before. It's a good word. As for the debt, there is none. I also would have fallen if you hadn't come to help."  
True hadn't even realized that it was odd to be speaking in English with someone other than his friends.  
Benten spoke up.  
"No the debt is ours. I hope we can repay you for it."  
They all seemed a bit embarrassed at the raw emotion between them. A silence settled around them for a few moments. Then True asked,  
"Why scavenge?"  
"Well its one of the three rules. It was the only one that fit" Ryogi said.  
"Three? My friend told me their were four." True recounted the rules Suijin told him earlier as they walked to the area where the Inn's were.  
"I'm sorry to say your friend is wrong. The only real rules are just scavenge, slay and survive." His voice grew serious and hard with each rule he spoke. Ryogi stopped walking, and turned to face a side street.  
"This is where I leave you two. If you're smart, I'd say find a room, rent it for a few days and don't leave until the you're name reverts back to normal. Don't walk the streets when its orange."  
"Thank you again." True said.  
"I hope we meet again soon" Benten added.  
He didn't look back, but raised a hand as a farewell wave.

True and Benten found their way back to the Inn they had stayed at the night before. They could afford one room for three nights. Both were too tired to go out and find a vendor sell their drops, so they paid and climbed the stairs to the third floor. All the lower rooms had been taken. They both sent messages to Suijin telling him where they were and asking where he was. He didn't reply, but his health had slowly but steadily been rising. So he wasn't in any danger as far as they could tell. True reassured Benten as much as he could.  
Things like "Suijin is smart, and cautious. Just don't tell him that I said that." and "Don't worry since he was healing, he was out danger(His life had gone yellow when they made it to the Inn and was almost in the green now). We'll can find him."  
True curled up on the rub, and Benten climbed on to the bed.  
True was dead tired, but sleep didn't come. He just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Every time he closed his eyes, intense brown eyes waited for him, and as much as was trying put up a brave front for Benten's sake. Suijin missing was really bothering him. Where was he? Was he OK?  
Finally after hours of this, his mind shut down enough to sleep.  
His nightmares were vague, and unremembered.  
At some point he dreamt that someone was whispering soothing things to him, and gently stroking this head. It was an odd dream, an island of safety in an ocean of torment.

Benten was gone by the time he woke up.

Additional Character Information

**True** (level 6)  
**Skills* -**Two handed assault spears, Battle healing, Light metal equipment, Medicine mixing, Parry, Searching, Tracking  
**Equipment – **Simple Spear, starter breastplate, beginners gloves, beginners boots, beginners pants. Throwing needles (4), gambling dice(blue)

**Suijin** (level 6)  
**Skills* -**Daggers, Throwing, Battle healing, Leather equipment, Acrobatics, Parry, Cooking  
**Equipment -**Brass dagger(2), throwing dagger(6), Leather tunic, beginners gloves, beginners boots, beginners pants, Aincard card's, **  
**  
**Benten**(level 6)  
**Skills* -**Blunt weapons, Battle healing, Heavy metal equipment, Extended Weight limit, Howl, Heavy shield equipment, Sales Negotiation  
**Equipment –** Brass hammer, Scale shirt, simple choker(black/Pink), beginners boots, beginners pants.

*As I don't know how the skills really work, I'll be giving them a slot every 5 levels until they reach 12 skills.


End file.
